Original ArticlesInduced sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage as tools for evaluating the effects of inhaled corticosteroids in patients with asthma☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Patients
Patients were included as reported earlier11 according to the criteria summarized below. Thirty-three patients with mild to moderate asthma, 19 men and 14 women, were recruited for this study from our institution's outpatient clinic of pulmonology. Asthma was diagnosed according to the American Thoracic Society criteria and included a history of recurrent episodes of wheezing, chest tightness, and dyspnea and normal lung function between asthmatic attacks.12 Asthma severity before the
Results
Thirty-three patients agreed to participate in the study. Three did not fulfill the inclusion criteria during the run-in period. Two of them had a persistent FEV1 of less than 60% of predicted, and the other had an exacerbation of asthma symptoms requiring additional medication. Thirty patients were randomized to receive FP (n = 15) or Sb (n = 15). At the time of entry into the treatment period, no significant differences were observed in baseline characteristics between the two treatment
Discussion
The patients receiving inhaled corticosteroids improved clinically from 4 weeks onward, with a significant increase in histamine threshold after 12 weeks of treatment (mean, 2.4 doubling doses).11 Here we demonstrate that in sputum from these patients, the percentage of eosinophils—and to a lesser extent also the parameters for plasma protein leakage—significantly decreased from 4 weeks onward. In the patients receiving Sb there was an increase in nonspecific bronchial hyperreactivity and an
Acknowledgements
We want thank R. Lutter for reading the manuscript carefully and R. de Haan for advice on statistical methods.
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Airways exudation of plasma macromolecules: Innate defense, epithelial regeneration, and asthma
2019, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Similar data have been reported in asthmatic patients by Out et al.32 Accordingly, the large plasma protein α2-macroglobulin has emerged as a well-validated index of plasma exudation in nasal and bronchial airways in numerous human in vivo studies.31,32,39-44 Further reflecting the nonsieved nature of plasma exudation responses, a tangled and sticky macromolecule, such as fibrinogen, is also used as an index of plasma exudation.38,45
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2006, Pulmonary Pharmacology and TherapeuticsAdding salmeterol to an inhaled corticosteroid reduces allergen-induced serum IL-5 and peripheral blood eosinophils
2005, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Levels of total and specific IgE were determined in serum15 at the first screening visit. Sputum induction and processing of whole sputum samples were performed according the method described by Fahy et al16 with minor modifications as described previously.17 Differential cell counts were expressed as percentage of cells, excluding squamous epithelial cells.
Sputum induction and bronchoscopy for assessment of ozone-induced airway inflammation in asthma
2005, ChestCitation Excerpt :Another caveat to our study is that some investigators use a different method of SI in which mucus conglomerations were separated from induced sputum, homogenized, and then used for the assessment of inflammation (eg, with cell counts and determination of biochemical parameters). We used the homogenized, whole induced sputum method that was recommended by the Asthma Clinical Research Network2 and used by Fahy et al,56 Hiltermann et al,29 and Nocker et al9 in the studies discussed above. It is unclear whether our results using the method recommended by the Asthma Clinical Research Network can be extrapolated to the mucus conglomeration method.
Induced sputum methodology: Validity and reproducibility of total glutathione measurement in supernatant of healthy and asthmatic individuals
2004, Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine
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Supported by a grant from GlaxoWellcome (R.E.T.N.).
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Reprint requests: J. S. van der Zee, MD, Academic Medical Center, Department of Pulmonology, F4-208, P.O. Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.